Financial DT Test study plan

Map the full instrument landscape (cash equities, fixed income, FX, money market, listed and OTC derivatives) and classify each by payoff profile, issuer, and cash-flow structure

Derive price-yield relationships for bonds and explain duration, convexity, and credit spread behaviour under rate moves

Compare equity valuation approaches (DCF, multiples, dividend discount) and state when each is appropriate

Explain how forwards, futures, options, and swaps differ in obligation, margining, and counterparty exposure

Calculate and interpret option Greeks and construct simple payoff diagrams for covered calls, protective puts, and straddles

Distinguish structured and packaged products (ETFs, structured notes, funds) by fee structure, liquidity, and embedded risk

Work through time value of money and yield calculations for money market instruments and discount pricing

Identify the risk factors that drive each major asset class and rank them by sensitivity

Describe market microstructure: order types, execution venues, auction mechanics, and the roles of exchange, broker, and market maker

Trace the trade lifecycle from order entry to clearing member and explain where each participant adds or absorbs risk

Explain how price discovery, bid-ask spread, and liquidity vary across lit, dark, and OTC venues

Interpret the impact of corporate actions and index rebalancing on prices and trading volumes

Distinguish reference, transaction, and derived data and state the quality controls each needs

Compute and interpret core risk and performance statistics: volatility, beta, VaR, Sharpe ratio, and correlation

Explain how benchmark construction, index methodology, and sampling choices affect reported performance

Identify common data quality failures (stale prices, survivorship bias, look-ahead bias) and describe detection methods

Map the front-to-back technology stack (order management, execution management, portfolio management, risk, settlement) and the data flows between systems

Explain how APIs, message queues, and FIX connectivity enable trading and reconciliation, including failure modes

Compare cloud, on-premise, and hybrid deployment for latency, resilience, and regulatory constraints

Describe the role of distributed ledger, smart contracts, and robotic process automation in post-trade processing, and state their current limitations

Summarise the core obligations under market conduct, best execution, client asset protection, and reporting regimes, and identify who enforces them

Classify financial crime risks (money laundering, market abuse, sanctions) and match each to a control

Distinguish credit, market, liquidity, operational, and model risk and name one standard measurement approach for each

Explain how capital and liquidity requirements constrain trading and product design

Apply suitability and appropriateness tests to client scenarios and document the rationale for a recommendation

Identify conflicts of interest, inducements, and disclosure duties in advisory and distribution scenarios

Trace settlement mechanics for equities and bonds, including settlement cycle, matching, fails, and buy-in consequences

Explain the roles of custodian, central securities depository, and clearing house, and how reconciliation and corporate action processing prevent loss

Re-test the two weakest domains from earlier weeks and close every remaining knowledge gap

Complete two timed mixed-domain practice sets and analyse errors by cause rather than by topic

Consolidate calculation formulas and regulatory thresholds into a single revision sheet

Simulate exam pacing to confirm timing per question and a strategy for flagged items